Pratt Maynard’s love for baseball came at a very early age, as it does for most baseball players. Growing up, the left handed hitter always wanted to play with a baseball and swing for the fences.

“Growing I always just wanted to hit that ball.” Pratt Maynard said. “(My dad) said if I picked up a baseball, I’d always want to play with it but if I picked up anything else, I didn’t seem interested in it. I guess it started then, something about baseball and hitting, something I love to do.”

When Maynard decided to come to North Carolina State University to play baseball, his expectations were that he’d be a key utility player for the Wolfpack. He thought he would be playing all over the diamond and try to help out where he could. That was fine with him but then it all changed.

“When I first got to state Coach (Chris) Hart, one of our assistant coaches who coaches catchers, asked if I had ever caught before,” Maynard revealed. “I told him I caught a little bit when I (was little), I had caught a hand full of games and he was like ‘well I’d like to turn you into a catcher here’.”

The coaching staff had Maynard, who is fourth on the team with a .278 clip, start from scratch as for catching duties.

“We started out doing little simple drills.” The Franklinton native explained. “The first thing is, he wanted to see if I was bat blind which means if somebody swings, you don’t blink, because if (I were) bat blind there is no way possible I could ever catch.”

It was a process, a process that started during the summer and went into this past fall.

“This last fall we did several drills to help me convert to a catcher and so far it’s been so good.  I think he’s one of the best coaches for catchers I’ve ever had. It helped out a lot that he was one of our assistant coaches.” Maynard praised.

Maynard did acknowledge his past catching career at eleven really didn’t prepare him for playing in the ACC, because at such an early age you just receive the pitch.

“When I was catching when I was younger, I just got behind the dish and caught the ball and threw it back to the pitcher, I didn’t have any technique or anything like that.”

But now, as opposed to the past, Maynard does have those techniques and is beginning to think like a catcher.

“Coach Hart, when he started teaching me those techniques, and (teaching me) different things that catchers do in different situations, it took some time getting used to but I think I’m picking it up pretty well now and everything is starting to flow really well.”

Things do seem to be going well when Maynard is the backstop as the Wolfpack are 8-6 when the freshman is wearing the catching gear.

What the average fan sees when they watch a game and observe Manyard squatting behind home plate is nothing compared to what Maynard himself sees and thinks during the game.

“Coach (Tom) Holliday (who’s son, Matt, is an All-Star for the Oakland Athletics), he relays signals to me from the dugout with all kind of different hand signals and face touching and his body and different places then I have to translate it to (the the pitcher and my) signals. We have so many different ones, you have to really think back there. It’s not like what people say where we just have to catch and throw it back, there’s a lot going on behind me, because if we mess up, say I put down the wrong pitch and the ball gets hit it over the fence and we lose the game 2-1 now than rather if I had a clue of what’s going on and I throw down the right signal, maybe the guy would ground out and we would win (the game.)” Maynard hypothetically analyzed.

Another catching nuance that Maynard is really working on is the art of framing balls.

“Maybe a ball is two balls off the plate and it’s a ball and when you have kills and when you’re catching it, you frame it, or make it look better than it really is and you get that strike call, it helps out a lot.”

He notes that how much fun he has being a a catcher because he is always active during the game.

“It’s fun, I like how every pitch you’re in the game,” Maynard, the self proclaimed New York Yankee fan said. “It’s not like sometimes when I play left field or third base, maybe I’ll get two balls in a three and a half hour game (where as) catching every play you’re in it, no matter what, and I like that.”

Maynard, according to his coaches, has a really good throwing arm behind the plate and Maynard, this off-season, wants to work on his footwork so he can use his best asset to pick off would-be base stealers.

“If I can get my feet going quicker than I am right now then my arm will speed up tremendously and and if I take, maybe, like a tenth of a second off my feet work and speed my arm up just a little bit, it’ll be a better pop time down to second if someone steals and maybe I’ll throw someone out.”

Maynard does note that it’s all about repetition, memorization, and the good old saying ‘practice makes perfect.’ He plans to master the art of catching so in the future, rather it be for NCSU or in the minor leagues, the use of his catching mind frame to help his ball club win games, and that is as important as a catcher framing strike one.